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Fifth Annual Jeremy Kane 5K Memorial Run to be Held on June 8 in Cherry Hill

On Sunday, June 8, hundreds of participants will once again take to the streets of Cherry Hill in honor of a fallen hero.

The fifth annual Jeremy Kane 5K Memorial Run – giving participants the option of completing a 5K (3.1 mile) run or one-mile walk – will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Cherry Hill High School East. Proceeds from the event go towards the Jeremy Kane Scholarship Fund, which supports student veterans at Rutgers University.

The benefit will begin with a special ceremony in Kane’s memory at 8 a.m. The Cherry Hill resident was a lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps and a criminal justice major at Rutgers University–Camden. The 22-year-old was killed by a suicide bomb attack while on patrol in the Helmand Province in Afghanistan in January 2010.

“Being a fellow veteran and working closely with the student veterans at Rutgers–Camden, my thoughts are always with the Kane family and any student veteran who has been touched by this tragic war,” says Fred Davis, head of the Office of Veterans Affairs at Rutgers–Camden, a co-sponsor of the event.

Echoing the sentiment is Joshua Piccoli, a United States Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War and a 2014 graduate of Rutgers–Camden. Piccoli notes that he and his fiancée, Danielle DeMarsico, have imparted this same message to their children, Austin, 16, Evan, 13, and Melina, 8, with whom they will complete the walk for the third consecutive year.

“They know that Jeremy was someone who answered the call, went overseas, served his country, and, unfortunately, was killed doing that,” says Piccoli.

The event is also co-sponsored by the student veterans at Rutgers–Camden. Other supporting organizations include Warrior’s Watch Riders, which will once again lead the participants; American Legion Post 372 in Cherry Hill, which will line the course with American flags, and Pepsi-Cola Co. in Pennsauken, which is providing water for the participants.

Thanks to two grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA), totaling more than $176,000, the Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts (RCCA) will continue to serve as a hub of award-winning performances, exhibitions, education programs, and community projects in the South Jersey region.